Dorsett infused wit into her news reports for the Express-News

Former Express-News reporter Amy Dorsett, seen in an undated courtesy photo provided by her family, died Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, 2012.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

Reporter Amy Dorsett of the San Antonio Express-News walks along a road devastated by Hurricane Rita in Beaumont, Texas, on Sept. 25, 2005. Dorsett and photographer Billy Calzada had been in Lousiana covering the effects of Hurricane Katrina, when, on their way back to San Antonio, the Beaumont area was hit by Hurricane Rita. Dorsett died in San Antonio on November 22, 2012 after an extended illness.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

Amy Dorsett, San Antonio Express-News reporter, at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 2003. She and photographer Billy Calzada were in Washington to report on the war wounded days after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Dorsett died after a long illness in San Antonio on Nov. 22, 2012.

Amy Dianne Dorsett, a former reporter for the San Antonio Express-News who is remembered for her sharp wit, unapologetic love of puns and speed and agility in producing articles, died suddenly Thursday afternoon.

Dorsett, 39, a Kentucky native, suffered from several autoimmune conditions, including multiple sclerosis. She wrote the blog “Ms. MS” for mySA, continuing after she left the Express-News in 2009.

As word of her death reached the newsroom, reporters and editors recalled and retold her stories, skillful lead sentences and sly turns of phrase. Dorsett's feature about Buc-ee's in 2007 might have been the best-remembered.

“First things first,” it began. “This is definitely not a Stuckey's on steroids. It most certainly isn't a truck stop. And that cheerful guy beaming his toothy smile on billboards from Louisiana to San Antonio is not a chipmunk. Or a squirrel. He is, without a doubt, a beaver.”

Others recalled a 2000 story about the inmate-turned-cookbook-author who prepared last meals for death row prisoners. It started with this: “HUNTSVILLE — Brian Price has a lot of satisfied customers, but not much repeat business.”

Dorsett was among the first to report about the rift that had developed among the feisty women entrusted with preserving the Alamo.

“Seventh-grade history covers the 1836 Battle of the Alamo. But it skips a fight that's almost as legendary,” she wrote in 2005. “Forget the Texians and the Mexicans. Meet the ‘whiners' and the ‘evildoers' — antagonistic factions of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.”

She documented the lives of ordinary people in countless obituaries, wrote crafty book reviews (she loved reading, her family said), and looked for ways to go beyond the conventions of news writing on routine assignments.

Newsroom colleagues recalled Dorsett's meticulously complicated beverage orders at Starbucks. And they remembered her audacity. One said he could hear Dorsett closely questioning Spurs coach Gregg Popovich during a nationally televised news conference after the team won a championship, unintimidated though she was not a sportswriter.

“Pop couldn't stand her,” said her mother, Dianne Dorsett, adding that he eventually came around.

“She never met a stranger,” she said. “That's why she was such a good reporter.”

Her sister, Ginger Dorsett, remembered that when the family arrived in San Antonio, it didn't take long for 13-year-old Amy to spot the neighbor's pool. “She marched over there, introduced herself and said, ‘I notice you have a pool,'” her sister said.

In 2001, Amy Dorsett experienced the first of a string of health problems — a brain tumor, which was benign. She wrote about it, infusing the story with humor, noting her tumor (the size of a walnut) was named Wally. A friend hosted “a tumor party the night before I went to the hospital. There were rubber bald caps for friends to model and sign. Another friend baked a cake and decorated it with a brain — walnut and all.”

In the mid-2000s, Dorsett was diagnosed with a string of autoimmune diseases — MS, lupus and Sjögren's syndrome.

“She never asked, ‘Why me?'” her mother said. “She said, ‘If I ask that question, it means I'm too good to have it.' She could never go there.”

“She was dealt a lousy hand but played it to the best of her ability,” he said.

Dorsett was looking forward to the holidays and a visit home from her niece. She was getting ready to make a batch of her cards, for which she became well-known.

Her office was stocked with paper, accessories and tools to create intricate cards, some of which she sold. The majority went to friends and family, and she spent hours creating them — pressing patterns into paper, tailoring each to the recipient.

“She had an eye for beauty and detail,” friend and former colleague Kate Hunger said.

As godmother to two of Hunger's daughters, Dorsett may have taken more photos of Stella and Vera Seringer than even her mother. “She remembered them on their birthdays,” Hunger said. “During the last holiday season, she taught them to make holiday cards.”

This summer, Dorsett took one of many family trips to Hawaii, a favorite location. More recently, she completed a road trip to Kentucky to visit her grandmother.

In the last few weeks of her life, she and her family saw the movie “Lincoln,” and she had met a friend for coffee.

There were some signs her body was tired. Her energy level was lower than usual, family said.

She didn't turn the TV on Thursday, didn't watch Thanksgiving Day parades — and she didn't touch her last cup of Starbucks.